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ReactOS
Early History Some time in 1996, a group called FreeWin95 was formed with the goal to implement an operating system that would be a free, Open Source clone of Windows 95. Unfortunately, like many such Open Source projects, stylistic differences inhibited FreeWin95's progress and it never accomplished its goal. By the end of 1997, when Windows 98 was released, FreeWin95 had burnt out. It was around this time that Jason Filby became project coordinator and called on everyone still subscribed to the mailing list to revive the project. It was decided that the new target should be Windows NT, and that there would be an emphasis on results - on written code, rather than endless talk. The project was renamed ReactOS, since the Operating System's roots grew out of a dissatisfaction with Microsoft's monopoly over the operating system market. In February 1998, ReactOS began. The first few years of ReactOS were painfully slow, despite the large amounts of code that was being written. Only a few of the developers knew how to write kernel code. It was a time of only a few people writing the difficult kernel beginnings. Later, as the kernel became more complete and stable, and as basic drivers such as the IDE and Keyboard drivers were written, more people were able to get involved in the development. Development Goal The goal of ReactOS is to create an Open Source Windows NT-compatible Operating System. Currently functionality target is Windows Server 2003. ReactOS is semi-allied with the WINE project, with code regularly being ported to ReactOS from WINE i.e. fixes sent 'upstream'. Current Status of ReactOS ReactOS is currently distributed under the Lesser GNU General Public License (LGPL) Today, the kernel has come a long way, and is fairly stable. Many APIs are complete enough for higher level work to be done. Substantial work has been done on many libraries. ReactOS currently includes support for joining both Wired and Wireless networks; in the case of Wireless, ReactOS can currently join unsecured and WEP-secured Wireless Networks. The current release of ReactOS is 0.3.14, with the next anticipated to be 0.3.15. CMake has now completely replaced the prior build system, rbuild. MSVC compiling support is incomplete, but being worked on frequently, with related fixes where applicable being sent upstream to WINE. Changelog for ReactOS 0.3.14 can be found here. Massive work has taken place recently on implementing CSRSS2 (with related work applied in NTOSKRNL, more work to follow in WIN32K), in addition to USB support (using the USB stack from the Haiku operating system), as well as the re-write of the cache manager. System Requirements Features * Support for IDE Hard Drives, and PS/2 Keyboards and Mice. * Basic GUI and basic VGA Driver. * Basic Audio support * USB support for Keyboards and Mice * Wired and Wireless Network Support FileSystem Support ReactOS currently supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and VFAT. Ext2 has been enabled as a filesystem during setup in Trunk, and currently formats correctly, however there is currently an issue where the setup process fails shortly after the file copy begins. Next Version With 0.3.14 out, 0.3.15 is scheduled to be the next release. There is currently no official list of goals that 0.4.0 must adhere to before release can be sanctioned. The ReactOS Website currently lists "UI effort: New explorer, second stage UI improvements, overall look & feel improvements", however, it is uncertain as to how accurate this is for describing what 0.4.0 will publish with. ReactOS Ports Ports of ReactOS, able to run on different platforms, are also underway. Here are the Architectures currently being worked on: * x86 * x64 * Arm * PowerPC Xbox support was featured at one point in ReactOS' development, however, the massive amount of re-coding since then has rendered the port unavailable. Links ReactOS Wiki